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England fans question Ashton's selection ahead of Nowell
After such an impressive performance last weekend, England have made very few changes to the team that will face France this Sunday.
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Courtney Lawes came into the starting XV to replace the injured Maro Itoje, while Chris Ashton starts ahead of Jack Nowell, who has dropped to the bench.
This change on the wing has raised a few eyebrows amongst England fans on Twitter, as many cannot see what the Exeter man did to lose his starting place.
In a game where there were no bad performers against Ireland last weekend, Nowell had a great match and did what he was expected to do. The winger was often seen coming off his wing throughout the game and was a nuisance in the midfield. While Ashton is certainly a good replacement, this decision has still surprised a lot of the fans.
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Watch: Dan Cole speaks about scrum battle ahead of Six Nations game against France
Some have speculated that it is Ashton’s ties with France that may give him that slight tactical nouse, while also being an intimidating factor to the French team after a brilliant stint with Toulon, where he scored a record haul of tries in one season in the Top 14.
But many still feel that the Sale man is better suited to the ‘finisher’ role in the team over Nowell, but have conceded that this may be part of Eddie Jones’ mind games.
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Meanwhile, the selection of Dan Cole and Ben Moon on the bench for England has gone down well amongst the fans, as the two scrummaging specialists will be able to negate an extremely powerful French pack in the latter stages of the match. France’s scrum started to get the upper hand over Wales towards the end of their match last week, and Jones will be aware of that.
However, it is the option to drop Nowell to the bench that has confused the fans the most.
This is what the fans had to say:
https://twitter.com/domspicer/status/1093820199835484160
Nowell was as good as anyone last week.
— Richard Scott (@RichardJScott) February 8, 2019
Strong, assume Ashton for Nowell due to his recent French connection?
— Bglibluesrugby (@bglbluesrugby) February 8, 2019
https://twitter.com/allrugby87/status/1093822444958146562
I think Ashton for Nowell is a little mind game from Jones, I just hope he's not being too clever as Nowell was one of the stand out performers. That said Ashton won't play 80, Nowell will get a run.
— . (@HappyHerdwick) February 8, 2019
https://twitter.com/liamions/status/1093822199813812224
Nowell by far the better starter, Ashton by far the better ‘finisher’ #EddiesBack
— Callum ◢ ◤ (@CallumCouch) February 8, 2019
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Jack Nowell much better than Ashton… Bad choice… But French team is bad so that should be OK…
— 82GeekMan (@RaynaudTristan) February 8, 2019
Ashton for Nowell is an odd choice. JN is a more complete player and he took a lot of workload off Farrell and Manu with his carrying in midfield last week
— Red Jon Rivers (@Knight_2359) February 8, 2019
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
29 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
29 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
29 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
29 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
29 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments